sing praises to thee in the sight of the Angels." 3
Angels have been assigned to us, too, by
1 Spiritual Exercises, Week 1, Exerc. 1.
3 Tob. 12: 3. 4 Ps. 137: 1.
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God to unite themselves to our hymns of praise and to offer our prayers to the Lord. These are our Guardian Angels, and if we do not invoke them, we are depriving our- selves of powerful aid.
And then what has been said of the Angels applies much more truly to the Queen of Angels. Invocation of Our Lady is therefore most effective.
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
CHAPTER V
IN MEDITATION BOTH THE HIGHER AND LOWER POWERS OF THE SOUL MUST BE ACTIVE. FIRST, HOW TO APPLY THE IMAGINATION AND THE SENSITIVE APPETITE
EVERYONE knows that the soul has three higher powers—memory, intellect and will— and two lower powers—imagination and sensitive appetite. This last goes with the various feelings of the will by movements of love or hate, hope or fear, joy or sadness.
In every intercourse, we make use of these five powers. Hence we call them into play in prayer, which is familiar intercourse with God. It is clear that the order in which the acts of these different powers are per- formed is essentially subject to variation and so cannot be prescribed absolutely. But in a treatise on prayer, to avoid confusion, we must study the faculties in succession. Let us begin with the lower powers, the imagination and the sensitive appetite.
To exercise the imagination is to cause it to produce an interior representation of
PRINCIPAL ACTS OF PRAYER
the Mystery, such as the Stable of Bethlehem, the Hall of the Scourging, Calvary, etc.
The advantages of this picture of the imagination are three:
The imagination is piously employed and tends less to spread itself on things foreign to the prayer. In this way one of the chief causes of distraction is avoided and the soul can more easily unite itself with God in peace.
In the second place, the sensitive appetite —a blind faculty, which is set in action piously or not according to the images presented to it—is turned from its perverse tendencies to tears of devotion or something similar.
Finally, these pictures give rise to holy thoughts in the intellect, pious recollections in the memory, and wholesome feelings in the will. No one can deny that the tears of contrition, or of sympathy with Our Lord in His sufferings, or of longing for Heaven, help to produce holy movements in the will.
However, we must not forget that there are souls not highly gifted on the side of the imagination, and which would spend
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
their efforts in vain to produce in themselves attractive pictures. Such souls will do better not to urge the use of these secondary faculties. Let them be satisfied with doing their best to keep the imagination and the sensitive appetite quiet.
PRINCIPAL ACTS OF PRAYER
CHAPTER VI
THE EXERCISE OF THE MEMORY AND UNDER- STANDING
THE memory must be used in recalling the subject of Meditation prepared the pre- vious night. If the difficulty of doing this is too great, a book may be used, not in such a way as to substitute reading for medita- tion, but just to glance over the main ideas of the subject.
The understanding must be exercised in the three following processes:
First, in returning several times to the ideas which we have read or heard explained. Just as the rain penetrates the earth only drop by drop so as to fertilize it, in the same way Our Lord's teaching only enters the soul gradually in order to change its earthly view of things to a heavenly and divine one. Those who meditate cannot impress too firmly on their minds the fact that it is useless to pass hurriedly from one item to another. They should pause at the first consideration until the soul can obtain no
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
more from it. So let the same thought be dwelt upon as long as any light, realization or spiritual fruit is gained from it, for it is not abundance of learning which gives the soul contentment and satisfaction, but the realization and spiritual appreciation of the truths upon which it is meditating.1 Yet it must be acknowledged that there are some souls which need a great number of ideas. One can dwell for half an hour on the same thought, another is quickly satisfied and needs a change at the end of a few minutes. Let each examine his own experience and act in accordance with what it shows is best for him.
In the second place, the understanding is not to rest content with allowing itself to be gradually penetrated by the ideas read or heard, but is to study the subject as fully as it can. Indeed, if those who meditate succeed by means of reason or reflection in finding anything which gives a better insight into the subject, whether by the use of reason or by means of that divine light which sheds its beams upon the understand- ing, they will obtain great spiritual fruit.21 Spiritual Exercises, Annot. 2. 2 Spiritual Exercises, Annot. 2.
PRINCIPAL ACTS OF PRAYER
I say that the understanding must do this as far as it can, for some intellects would be wearing themselves out to no purpose by trying to penetrate the subject more deeply. These should be satisfied with the first method, that is, simply to make what they have heard or read part of themselves.
Thirdly, the intellect ought to make some personal and practical applications with a view to the correction of faults, the acquisi- tion of virtue and the union of the will with God's. These are called resolutions, and they form one of the principal ends of meditation. The work of their formation can be definitely accomplished only by the will which accepts them, but the understand- ing must do the preparation.
Resolutions ought to be particular, appli- cable here and now, supported with reasons, and humble.1
Particular. It is not enough to say in a general way: I will be humble, charitable, obedient; but we must say: I will accept this humiliation, pardon that injury, do generously that special thing which costs me an effort.
1 Roothaan, De ratione meditandi, Proposita.
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
Applicable here and now. We must be able to put them in practice that very day. A general desire for God's glory is doubtless an excellent thing and wins the divine approbation in a very special manner, as we see in many passages of Holy Writ.: "I am come to show it (the vision) to thee because thou art a man of desires,'' said the Angel Gabriel to Daniel.1 But these holy desires cannot take the place of real resolu- tions.
Supported with reasons. Resolutions, indeed, have no attraction in themselves and so we cannot be spurred on to carry
